Cafe Bucky

I am staying offline tomorrow, Saturday August 30th.

Why?

To switch gears a bit. Think of the last 20 years, and all of the change that has snuck up on us:

• cell phones
• blogs / facebook / myspace / linked in
• web
• twitter
• IMs
• email

It’s amazing when you think back to the 80’s.  In terms of communication, and the sense of being ‘always on’, they seem almost tranquil by compare…  It will be good to stop for a moment and reflect a bit.

So I will do my best to play hooky from the online world tomorrow.  One of the best parts is that I wont be checking online to see if anyone joins me.  It is a switch off day.  I’ll apologize on Sunday :)

Excellent interview with Mark Pesce, revolving around the effects of Hyperconnectivity (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, WikiPedia, etc.)

Buckaroo is on Eduisland 4.

I am happy to say that my store, Buckaroo, is now open!  This is where I provide scripted objects for free (or for commercial purposes, 300L).  The primary idea is to get my stuff out there, so that my portfolio is known.  It is also a way of giving back, especially to the Info Island Archipelago.

The items at this moment are:

• WebMon  - browse and launch external web pages - menus or search
• VidMon   - per-person video - pick from menus or search
• Slider      - slideshow/texture viewer - give items and visit web sites on a per-texture basis
• SimpleSlider - slideshow/texture viewer - give notecard (more of a kiosk than Slider)
• VideoPoster  - per-person video, defined in description field of object - no menus
• LMGiver    - browse, launch, and get Landmarks - menus or search

There are a few things that will quickly follow that list (such as TPFromDescription).

Here is the SLurl to Buckaroo: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Eduisland%204/43/177/26

Pricing and Perms

Items are Free for Personal, Educational, and Non-Profit use.

Items are 300L EACH for commercial (300L for each copy you make, or get direct from the store)

Items are mod and copy, but not transfer.  I dont want others reselling my work as their own.

Support

Support calls start at 500L if I come out (or at my discretion).  I strive to provide good documentation on my web site, and recommend checking out the great videos that Torley has done (see the Second Life Video Page).  I am open to custom work, at Rl rates.

Roadmap

I have a definite roadmap in mind.  The next steps are to round out the products with TPFromDescription, BuckyRadio, TPMap, GiveHints (a welcome mat that provides direction to whoever steps on it), and FlipSide (toggles between two images, for giving more info).

There will also be more consistency across the products, and more documentation (which will be moving to my main web site)

There are a lot of things I will be able to do to take advantage of the upcoming prim touch functions (which will allow scripters to detect WHERE on a prim a click occurred).

Of course, there are things beyond that such as swapping objects in one place (such as a collection of sliders), and integrating WebMon/LMGiver into one object that allows a user to search across different types of items.

And it’s rumored that I built a thing or two :)

I’ve done a demo implementation of Imagemaps for Second Life.  The upcoming release of the server side includes several new functions for handling touch events on a prim (the face and the coordinates!)

I will be writing documentation for this, but for now, pop this into a prim and look at the extensive comments near the top of the file.  The script should serve as pretty good example of how to use a list to represent clickable regions for an entire prim.

NOTE: You need to be running on the Beta Grid (Aditi) at this time to see this in action.

MultiFaceImagemap.lsl

(try this with a plain box prim.  Faces 1 and 2 have some actions bound to them)

More soon!

I have been pondering for a while on how to reopen my store, Buckaroo.

I want to provide tools, and do want to show my portfolio in action.

So, look for a return (soon, as in this month) of WebMon, Slider, SimpleSlider, VidMon, and VideoPoster.  Also look for BuckyRadio, LMGiver, and perhaps more down the road.  I have more ideas than time.

These will be free for Personal and Educational/Non-Profit Use.

I will ask for Commercial Buyers to make a donation of at least 300L per item. (and if they make copies, they should donate something for that too)

Permissions: Copy and Mod where it makes sense.  Scripts are Copy only.  No Transfer!  I dont want people getting my products for free and then turning around and selling them (yes, this has happened with BuckyRadio)

This brings me back to Support and Custom Work.  I’ll come out and help / answer questions for a fee, starting at 500L.  I’ll be improving the documentation I already have on my web site.  I am open to Custom Work, so always send me a notecard or email that details what you have in mind — dont rely on an IM.

There will not be any retroactive price reductions or refunds, etc.  The $L earned up to this point was a small bit of encouragement to keep improving the products.  Come to the store when it is ready and think of as free updates!

I’ll follow up on this when the store is ready, and will do my best to answer any questions that this brings up.

I am declaring a little holiday:  Offline Day

On Saturday, August 30, I am going to pretend it is the 1970’s — at least for the online aspect.

• not going to twitter
• or go on Second Life
• or use the web, or blog
• or check my email
• or use my cell phone (or anyone else’s, if I can help it :)

I just want to have a day of being able to turn it all off.  Believe me, I am a total online mammal, so this is not as easy as it sounds.  This will be a day of being out and enjoying, and thinking back to a much simpler time, before we had all this tech.

And Sunday?  Well, that is the day to apologize to everyone for not being online Saturday!

Anyone with me?  (I’ll do it anyway :)

I was recently asked to show some of my RL zoom blurs at a gallery in Second Life.  I am happy to say that they are up!

Go to : Creative Showcase @ The Learning Experience

The photos are culled from my 2006 “Blurred Realities” show.   A big thank you to Pammy Preez of SL, who encouraged me to show!

(http://slurl.com/secondlife/Kimokeo%20Cove/193/27/22)

I am in the middle of updating the structure, behavior, and yes, content of my Resume

The thing I have working now is a form of tooltip.  Click on any section that highlights, and it will go try to find additional info for that.  You can click again to toggle it off.

As for content:  I’ve lumped my work of the last few years together under Freelance Web Development. It has been a fun exercise in getting some breadth.  If I find the right thing now to commit to full time, then yeah, I am there!  Otherwise, I am happy to mesh with the right folks at the right times, do a good gig, and look back at it as a great experience (most of the ones in the last few years have gone well).

The other bit about contracting is that it has let me control my hours — I’ve been able to leverage that into a lot of learning about Second Life (scripting, building, managing).  There IS a plan to that :)  I know that virtual worlds will become more mainstream, and so I have spent time amassing skills that will serve well when that happens.

Back to the resume, it will be changing a lot in the next few days.  Let me know of any inquiries, suggestions, etc.